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Oil & Natural Gas Technology DOE Award No.: DE-FE0000408 Quarterly Report October – December 2011 Post Retort, Pre Hydro-treat Upgrading of Shale Oil Submitted by: Ceramatec Inc 2425 S. 900 W. Salt Lake City, UT 84119 Prepared by: John H. Gordon, PI Prepared for: United States Department of Energy National Energy Technology Laboratory January 31, 2012 Office of Fossil Energy
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Page 1: Oil & Natural Gas Technology - National Energy … Library/Research/Oil-Gas...Oil & Natural Gas Technology DOE Award No.: DE-FE0000408 Quarterly Report October – December 2011 Post

Oil & Natural Gas Technology

DOE Award No.: DE-FE0000408

Quarterly Report

October – December 2011 Post Retort, Pre Hydro-treat Upgrading of

Shale Oil

Submitted by: Ceramatec Inc 2425 S. 900 W.

Salt Lake City, UT 84119

Prepared by: John H. Gordon, PI

Prepared for: United States Department of Energy

National Energy Technology Laboratory

January 31, 2012

Office of Fossil Energy

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 1

Table of Contents

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 4

2. PROGRESS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION ................................................................................................. 5

2.1 TASK 1.0 -- PROJECT MANAGEMENT PLAN ...................................................................................................... 52.2 TASK 2.0 -- UPGRADING DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................................... 52.3 TASK 3.0 -- ELECTROLYSIS DEVELOPMENT ..................................................................................................... 52.4 TASK 4.0 -- ANALYSIS ...................................................................................................................................... 52.5 TASK 5.0 – UPGRADING DEVELOPMENT .......................................................................................................... 5

2.5.1 Subtask 5.1 – Analytical Capability ....................................................................................................... 52.5.2 Subtask 5.2 – Upgrading reactor and Separation setup ........................................................................ 5

2.6 TASK 6.0 - ELECTROLYSIS DEVELOPMENT ....................................................................................................... 72.6.1 Subtask 6.1 – Membrane fabrication ..................................................................................................... 72.6.2 Subtask 6.2 – Seal testing ...................................................................................................................... 72.6.3 Subtask 6.3 – Cell design and set up ...................................................................................................... 72.6.4 Subtask 6.4 – Cell operation .................................................................................................................. 7

3. CONCLUSION ................................................................................................................................................. 13

4. COST STATUS ................................................................................................................................................ 13

5. MILESTONE STATUS ................................................................................................................................... 15

6. ACCOMPLISHMENTS .................................................................................................................................. 16

7. PROBLEMS OR DELAYS ............................................................................................................................. 16

8. PRODUCTS ...................................................................................................................................................... 16

9. LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................................................. 16

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 2

List of Tables

Table 1: Specifications of Bitumen ................................................................................................. 6Table 2: List of upgrading experiments for Bitumen ...................................................................... 6Table 3: Results of Bitumen upgrading .......................................................................................... 6Table 4: Results of Coker diesel desulfurization ............................................................................ 7Table 5: Summary of sodium recovery test cells run in long-term mode ....................................... 9Table 6: Summary of performance of sodium recovery test cells run in long-term mode at 60 mA/cm2 current density .................................................................................................................. 9Table 7: Sodium recovery test cells, using solids from processed Coker Diesel runs, assembled and tested during the reporting period .......................................................................................... 12Table 8: Project costing profile for the 9th Quarter ...................................................................... 13Table 9: Milestone log for 6rd Quarter ......................................................................................... 15

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 3

List of Figures

Figure 1: Cell voltage at 60 mA/cm2 and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) versus run time for sodium recovery cell Na_molten_20110504. Run time includes time periods for OCV measurements (no current). ............................................................................................................. 9Figure 2: Comparison between total sulfur added and measured for Anolyte #4 during long term test for cell Na Recovery Cell 20110504 ...................................................................................... 10Figure 3: Picture of the dried solid samples of two nitrogen Coker Diesel runs (CR2, CR3) and two Coker Diesel hydrogen runs (CR4, CR5) .............................................................................. 11Figure 4: Cell voltage and current density versus elapsed time for sodium recovery test cell Coker_Diesel_CR2_20111108 ..................................................................................................... 12Figure 5: Projected and actual monthly costs over time ............................................................... 14Figure 6: Projected and actual cumulative costs over time ........................................................... 14

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 4

1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

In the 9th

quarter considerable progress was made. A presentation was made at the Oil Shale Symposium titled, “Novel process for shale oil upgrading without using hydrogen”. The presentation was well attended and raised awareness of the technology. Reactor experiments were conducted on coker diesel which contained refractory nature sulfur compounds originally in coke with 1.8% sulfur content, nearly 98% sulfur was removed. Also bitumen from the McKay River in Alberta was processed under various conditions which had an initial API of about 8 and starting sulfur content 5.1%. Up to 97% of the sulfur was removed and API was increased to 19, and TAN was reduced from 5 to 0. These are encouraging results both for refinery stream pro-cessing as well as pre-processing feedstocks which may be sent to the USA by pipeline. Mean-while the electrolysis process is still looking very encouraging. The long term test cell has longed over 5000 hours with no apparent membrane degradation. The program is expected to have funds remaining at the scheduled program end so a no cost extension has been requested.

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 5

2. PROGRESS, RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

2.1 Task 1.0 -- Project Management Plan

The PMP was updated within 30 days and submitted to the Project Manager (Quarter 1).

2.2 Task 2.0 -- Upgrading Development

It is explained in detail in 6th

Quarterly report.

2.3 Task 3.0 -- Electrolysis Development

It is explained in detail in 6th

Quarterly report.

2.4 Task 4.0 -- Analysis

It is explained in detail in 6th

Quarterly report.

Budget Period 2

2.5 Task 5.0 – Upgrading Development

This task is related to developing the process of treating shale oil, or heavy oil at elevat-ed temperature and pressure in the presence of an alkali metal, either sodium or lithium and also a hydrogen source, either hydrogen gas or methane (natural gas) to form an oil stream with re-duced levels of sulfur, nitrogen and heavy metals and also in the process reducing the viscosity and increasing the API gravity. The object here is to determine the impact of various reaction parameters on product quality.

2.5.1 Subtask 5.1 – Analytical Capability Analytical laboratory set up There are no major changes in analytical capability.

2.5.2 Subtask 5.2 – Upgrading reactor and Separation setup Additional experiments were performed with bitumen and Coker diesel as feedstocks. The bitu-men specifications are shown in Table 1 below.

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 6

Table 1: Specifications of Bitumen

C H N S API TAN Ni V Fe 83.7 10.03 0.4 5.1 7.97 5.2 77 213 3 The various different runs are listed in Table 2 below. The results of the runs are shown in Table 3. As observed from the Table, 96.5% sulfur was removed from the bitumen (Run B1) in pres-ence of hydrogen whereas methane as a cover gas resulted into maximum 88.6% sulfur removal (Run B4). API of the upgraded product was 19 and 17 respectively. It can be concluded that, hy-drogen as a cover gas is more effective at upgrading compared to methane. Table 2: List of upgrading experiments for Bitumen

Run ID Gas

Actual Na/ Theore-tical Na

Reaction Time

Reactor Pressure

Reactor Temp.

Min. Psig. C B1 H2 0.98 127 1049 391 B2 CH4 0.63 123 1324 395 B3 H2 1.01 39 1136 383 B4 CH4 1.00 40 1431 403 B5 H2 1.08 245 980 385 Table 3: Results of Bitumen upgrading

Run ID

Sulfur Re-moved

Nitro-genRemoved

Liquid Fraction Mass Yield

API Hydrogen Consumption

Light ends (C1-C6) Formed

% % % scf/barrel scf/barrel B1 96.5% 43.5% 89.1% 19.1 335.5 153.9 B2 76.2% 26.8% 91.4% 13.0 N/A 145.2 B3 63.6% 5.4% 91.6% 13.0 114.4 154.6 B4 88.6% 28.5% 73.2% 17.0 N/A 206.4 B5 95.6% 12.9% 84.1% 16.8 193.1 154.6

Coker diesel was treated in the upgrading reactor with Nitrogen and hydrogen as cover gases re-spectively. The initial coker diesel has a sulfur content of 1.8%. The experiments were per-formed at 275 C and 450 psig gas pressure.

Sulfur Removal from Coker Diesel

Table 4 shows the detailed results. The sodium charge was approximately 6 g. The results show upto 97.7% sulfur removal using hydrogen as a cover gas. With nitrogen as a cover gas, up to 90% sulfur was removed.

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 7

Table 4: Results of Coker diesel desulfurization

Run ID Gas

Actual Na/ Theoretical Na

Sulfur Removed

Liquid Frac-tion Mass Yield

API

% % CR1 N2 1.10 83.2 88.5 35.20 CR2 N2 1.07 90.3 86.05 35.24 CR3 N2 1.10 94.1 85.2 35.31 CR4 H2 0.66 72.4 94.5 33.12 CR5 H2 0.94 90.4 92.5 34.46 CR6 H2 1.16 97.7 89.8 35.79 Additional flow meters, and data loggers were installed to provide better mass balance data and monitoring of process parameters during runs.

2.6 Task 6.0 - Electrolysis development

To reduce the overall cost of the upgrading process, an electrolysis process will be de-veloped to regenerate sodium or lithium from the respective polysulfide. The process will feature ceramic ion conductive membranes developed at Ceramatec. The energy cost to regenerate the alkali metals from the polysulfide is expected to be about half that of producing the metals from their respective chlorides.

2.6.1 Subtask 6.1 – Membrane fabrication The Recipient shall fabricate and characterize sodium conductive and lithium conductive mem-branes.

2.6.2 Subtask 6.2 – Seal testing Ceramatec shall evaluate various seal approaches for compatibility with the alkali metal and the metal polysulfide at various temperatures.

2.6.3 Subtask 6.3 – Cell design and set up Ceramatec shall design benchtop cells for two types of operation, one where the alkali metal is molten and one where it plates onto a current collector. Reactors and catholyte transfer means will be provided to prepare alkali metal sulfide of differing composition and transfer to the cell. The cells will be designed to accommodate multiple reference electrodes, operate at various ele-vated temperatures. The cells will have features designed to facilitate sulfur removal and be de-signed to operate within a dry enclosure.

2.6.4 Subtask 6.4 – Cell operation The Recipient shall operate cells under various conditions including variation of the current density, electrode gap, temperature, electrolyte, polysulfide order, and alkali metal. Current will

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 8

be measured as a function of applied voltage. Periodically cell operation will be interrupted and cell contents analyzed to determine current efficiency. In Phase 1 the alkali metal polysulfide will be synthesized from alkali metal and sulfur and will not contain appreciable impurities which may flow through from an actual upgrading process as will occur in Phase 2.

Long term test cell results

One cell has been operated as long term test during this reporting period. Table 5 summarizes the properties of the cell. Sodium polysulfide (Na2S4) is periodically added to the anolyte solution in the cell to replenish the sodium as the ions are transported and reduced to sodium metal in the cathode. Cell Na_molten_20110504 has been in continuous operation for 5044 hours (210 days) at a constant current density of 60 mA/cm2 Figure 1. shows the cell voltage and the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) during the test. The average cell voltage for the run is equal to 3.10V. The cell’s Nersnt potential or OCV (Open Circuit Voltage) varied between 2.1 and 2.3V, with an average around 2.2V. Table 6 summarizes the cell’s key metrics. A total of 1933 grams of sodium tetrasulfide Na2S4 has been added to the cell, from which 442 grams of sodium have been re-covered. This represents approximately 86.5% of the total sodium added as sodium polysulfide to the cell. As documented in past quarterly reports, we have detected small amounts hydrogen sul-fide gas being generated in the cell. Since the cells are operated inside a glove box in a dry nitro-gen environment, we have speculated that the gas comes from electrochemical decomposition reactions between the anolyte solvent and the sodium polysulfide. Aging of the anolyte solvent is evident as the test goes on and it is manifested as an increase in viscosity and in the reduction of the ionic conductivity. This explains the slow but steady increase in the cell operating voltage with each new anolyte, as shown in Figure 1. We have measured the sulfur composition of the anolyte solution during the test. Figure 2 compares the total cumulative sulfur added and the total sulfur measured, expressed as weight percent of the anolyte solution, during the long term test with Anolyte #4. The difference between the sulfur added and the sulfur measured is equal to the sulfur lost as H2

In the next quarter, sodium tetrasulfide (Na

S gas plus the elemental sulfur, which precipitates out of the anolyte solution. The figure indicates that it takes approximately 240 hours (after adding fresh anolyte solution) to reach a 46% difference between sulfur added and measured. Then, this difference is maintained for the remaining of the anolyte life. If we discount the amount of elemental sulfur recovered from the anolyte after separation, the sulfur loses account for 37% of the total sulfur added. A total of six anolyte solutions (five replacements) have been used so far during the 5044 hours of the test. After replacing the anolyte, the cell voltage decreases every time to a value similar to that of the beginning of the test. This is proof of the good condition of the membrane since little or no over potential due to the NaSICON solid electrolyte has been measured.

2S4) will be replaced with sodium sulfide (Na2

S) in the long term test cell.

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 9

Table 5: Summary of sodium recovery test cells run in long-term mode

Table 6: Summary of performance of sodium recovery test cells run in long-term mode at 60 mA/cm2 current density

Cell ID Total Run Time

Avg. Voltage

Avg. OCV

Number of Anolyte Solution

Replacements

Total Na2S4 Na Recovered Added

Notes

Hours (days) V V g g % out of

Na added

Na Recovery Cell

20110504

5044*3.10

(210) 2.20 5 1933 442 86.5

Cell is still in operation with mem-brane in excellent conditions

* Total time includes short time periods to measure the cell OCV

Figure 1: Cell voltage at 60 mA/cm2 and Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) versus run time for sodium recovery cell Na_molten_20110504. Run time includes time periods for OCV measurements (no current).

Cell ID# Anolyte Anode Electrode Membrane Catholyte Cathode

Electrode Seal Type Operating Conditions

Na Recovery Cell 20110504 Na2S4 in MF Platinized Ti mesh(1.1" diam.)

NaSICON GY (1 mm thick, 0.8" diam.) Molten Na Molten Na, Ti rod

current collector Silica-Boria Glass Temperature=130C

Anolyte agitation Cte Current=60 mA/cm^2

2

2.2

2.4

2.6

2.8

3

3.2

3.4

3.6

3.8

4

0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500 4000 4500 5000 5500

Volt

age

(VD

C)

Elapsed Time (hours)

Long Term Test of Cell 20110504

Cell Voltage at 60 mA/cm^2

Open Circuit Voltage

Anolyte Replacement

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 10

Figure 2: Comparison between total sulfur added and measured for Anolyte #4 during long term test for cell Na Recovery Cell 20110504

Sodium recovery test cells results using solids from processed oil samples:

A sample of Coker Diesel feedstock was procured in this quarter. A total of six upgrading tests, using sodium and hydrogen or nitrogen as covered gas, were planned and conducted. The reaction was done at a temperature and pressure of 280°C and 425 psig, respectively. At the end of the reaction batch time, the reaction products were decanted to separate the solid and liquid fractions. The solids were washed with hexane to dissolve the remaining oil and then centrifuged to separate the washed solids from the liquid. The washed solids were dried at 80°C to evaporate the remaining hexane solvent. Figure 3 shows pictures of the dried solids for four of the runs (CR2, CR3, CR4, and CR5). CR2 and CR3 were run using nitrogen as covered gas, whereas CR4 and CR5 used hydrogen. There is a clear difference in color and composition between the two set of solids. While they all have sodium sulfide (Na2

Table 7

S), the amount of sulfide in the hydro-gen run solid samples is significantly higher. Moreover, the higher carbon content of the nitrogen run solid samples evidences the larger extent of thermal cracking that occurs when hydrogen gas is not present. The electrolyte solution for the electrolysis runs is prepared by dissolving the dried solids in our preferred polar organic solvent. The electrolyte solutions obtained from the hydrogen runs had higher ionic conductivities and were less viscous than the solutions from the nitrogen runs. A total of four cells were assembled and run during the reporting period (see ). Figure 4 shows the cell voltage and the current density versus test elapsed time for cell

-20

-10

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

0

5

10

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20

25

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45

2350 2450 2550 2650 2750 2850 2950 3050 3150

Diff

eren

ce b

tw. S

ulfu

r Add

ed a

nd M

easu

red

(%)

Sulfu

r Con

tent

(% w

t.)

Test Total Elapsed Time (hours)

Sulfur Mass Balance for Anolyte #4

Total Sulfur Measured (% wt.)

Total Sulfur Added (% wt.)

Sulfur Difference btw. Added and Measured (%)

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 11

Coker_Diesel_CR2_20111108. The cell was run in constant voltage mode, initially at 3V for 10 hours and then at 3.5V for the remaining of the 140 hr test. A maximum current density of 30 mA/cm2 was only achieved at 3.5V, with a significant cell deactivation as shown by the quick current density drop in Figure 4. Test cells Coker_Diesel_CR4_20111110, Coker_Diesel_CR5_20111111, and Coker_Diesel_CR6_20111116 run much better reaching and maintaining in all cases the optimum current density of 60 mA/cm2

. However cell deactivation, as evidenced by carbon rich deposits on the surface of the anode electrode, was still observed towards the end of the runs.

Figure 3: Picture of the dried solid samples of two nitrogen Coker Diesel runs (CR2, CR3) and two Coker Diesel hydrogen runs (CR4, CR5)

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 12

Table 7: Sodium recovery test cells, using solids from processed Coker Diesel runs, assembled and tested during the reporting period

Figure 4: Cell voltage and current density versus elapsed time for sodium recovery test cell Coker_Diesel_CR2_20111108

Cell ID# Anolyte Anode Electrode Membrane Catholyte Cathode

ElectrodeCell Operating

Conditions

Coker_Diesel_CR2_20111108 273.6 g of solution with 6.8 wt.% solids in MF

Platinized Ti mesh(1" diameter, 3 mm

from membrane)

NaS GY pressed disk (0.51 mm thick)

Active area=1.86 cm 2̂Molten Na Ti rod current collector Temperature=130C

Cte Votage=3-3.5V

Coker_Diesel_CR4_20111110 238.6 g of 4.1 wt% CR4 solids in MF

Platinized Ti mesh(1" diameter, 3 mm

from membrane)

NaS GY pressed disk (1 mm thick)

Active area=1.84 cm 2̂Molten Na Ti rod current collector

Temperature=130CCte Current=60 mA/cm 2̂

Cte Votage=3.5V

Coker_Diesel_CR5_20111111

Added 14.3 g of CR5 solids to anolyte ofCoker_Diesel_CR4_20111110 Cell. 5.8% wt. solids solution in MF

Platinized Ti mesh(1" diameter, 3 mm

from membrane)

NaS GY pressed disk (1 mm thick)

Active area=1.84 cm 2̂Molten Na Ti rod current collector

Temperature=130CCte Current=60 mA/cm 2̂

Cte Votage=3.5V

Coker_Diesel_CR6_20111116314.9 g of 5.4wt% CR6 solids in MF

Platinized Ti mesh(1" diameter, 3 mm

from membrane)

NaS GY pressed disk (0.41 mm thick)

Active area=2.0 cm 2̂Molten Na Ti rod current collector

Temperature=130CCte Current=60 mA/cm 2̂

Cte Votage=3.5V

0

0.5

1

1.5

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2.5

3

3.5

4

0

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10

15

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25

30

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40

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140

Volta

ge (V

)

Cur

rent

Den

sity

(mA

/cm

^2)

Elapsed Time(hrs)

Coker_Diesel_CR2_20111108 Test Cell

Current DensityControlled Cell Voltage

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 13

Task 7.0 – Analysis Subtask 7.1 – Develop electrolysis process model

Ceramatec shall analyze data from Task 3 and a performance model will be developed. Various factors such as membrane thickness, type of alkali metal, electrode configuration and cell design would be included in the model considerations. Subtask 7.2 – Preliminary cost analysis

The Recipient shall incorporate the models from Subtasks 4.1 and 4.2 into a preliminary cost model. Based on the preliminary cost analysis, a selection will be made between sodium and lith-ium as the most promising alkali metal for further pursuit in Phase 2. Sodium was selected be-cause of higher efficiency of removing sulfur and lower cell voltage in electrolysis compared to Lithium.

3. CONCLUSION

Our conclusion at this point is that high levels of both sulfur and nitrogen can be removed from shale oil, heavy oil, coker diesel and bitumen with the process tested. Both methane and hydrogen are effective in removal of sulfur, nitrogen, heavy metals, and increasing API gravity.

4. COST STATUS

The projected costs stated in the Project Management Plan and the monthly costs of the 9th

quarter are shown in Table 12, along with the projected costs stated in the Project Manage-ment Plan.

Table 8: Project costing profile for the 9th Quarter

Note: Benefits, Overhead, & G&A rates chan Projected Actual Projected Actual Projected Actual Projected Actual

Direct Labor 31,996.53 28,543.54 29,094.80 89,634.87 Benefits 29.76% 30% 9,522.17 8,494.56 8,658.61 26,675.34 Overhead 43.71% 44% 13,985.68 12,476.38 12,717.34 39,179.40

Total Burdened Labor 55,504.38 49,514.48 50,470.75 155,489.61 Direct Materials / Spec Test 7,013.98 15,124.03 14,900.75 37,038.76 Equipment - - Consulting 16,864.08 9,885.84 13,374.96 Travel 119.00 4,737.06 1,915.00 6,771.06

Subtotal 79,501.44 79,261.41 80,661.46 239,424.31 G&A 31.44% 31% 24,995.25 24,919.78 25,359.96 75,274.99 Total monthly - 104,496.69 - 104,181.19 - 106,021.42 - 314,699.30

Oct-11 Nov-11 Dec-11 Q9

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 14

Figure 5 shows a plot of the total monthly costs and the initially projected costs versus time and Figure 6 shows the cumulative monthly costs versus time. Also shown in the figure is the fraction of actual over planned cumulative expenses.

Figure 5: Projected and actual monthly costs over time

Figure 6: Projected and actual cumulative costs over time

- 50,000

100,000 150,000 200,000 250,000 300,000 350,000

Mon

thy

DoE

Exp

endi

tiure

s

Month

Planned

Actual

- 0.20 0.40 0.60 0.80 1.00 1.20

- 500,000

1,000,000 1,500,000 2,000,000 2,500,000 3,000,000 3,500,000 4,000,000

Actu

al/P

lann

ed C

umul

ativ

e Ex

pend

iture

s

Cum

alat

ive

DoE

Ex

pend

itiur

es

Month

Planned

Actual

Actual/Planned

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 15

5. MILESTONE STATUS

New milestones need to be set for the current Budget Period.

Table 9: Milestone log for 6rd Quarter

Milestone No.

Task / Sub-task

Project Milestone Description

Planned Start Date:

Planned End Date:

Actual Start Date:

Actual End Date:

Comments

1 1 Updated PMP

9/29/09 10/29/09 9/29/09 10/26/09

2 2.1 Analytic capability established

9/29/09 3/1/10 9/29/09 3/23/10 Analytical capability has been established as stated in the PMP. Operators have been trained on GC. ICP and CHNS are operational

3 2.2 Complete upgrading exp. Setup

9/29/09 3/29/09 9/29/09 3/26/10 Upgrading set-up has been completed including HAZOP and pre-start up safety re-view. The reactor set up has been ready to be operational as of Friday, March 26, 2010.

4 2.3 Complete process runs

3/30/10 1/3/11 3/26/10 3/31/11 Process runs underway

5 3.1.1 Complete membranes for Phase 1

9/29/09 7/5/10 9/29/09 9/20/10 Membrane fabrication has exceeded demand for fabri-cation. Mechanical character-ization was complete on Sep-tember 20, 2010.

6 3.3 Cells ready for opera-tion

4/13/10 2/28/11 4/13/10 3/31/11 Cells were ready for opera-tion on time. Initial cells test-ing began running 4/26/10 when sufficient sodium poly-sulfide was synthesized.

7 4.3 Preliminary cost model complete

2/8/11 3/14/11 1/4/11 3/18/11 A preliminary cost model was completed and reviewed in-ternally. Adjustments were recommended by the review-ers and additional cases sug-gested for updated cost mod-els.

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Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 16

6. ACCOMPLISHMENTS

• Electrolysis of sodium sulfide at temperatures of molten sodium have begun and are showing very encouraging results.

• Reactor tests with methane have continued with encouraging results • Process models of both the reactor and electrolysis processes have begun which will lead

to the preliminary cost model. • Additional input and output measurement has improved the accuracy of mass balances • Electrolysis of Na2S4 has exceeded 5000 hours at the target current density and tempera-

ture. • The technology has been demonstrated on multiple feedstocks of different origins:

Shale Oil, Heavy Oil, Bitumen (Oil Sands), and Coker Diesel 7. PROBLEMS OR DELAYS

No problems to report at this time.

8. PRODUCTS

No products to report at this time.

9. LIST OF APPENDICES

None

Page 18: Oil & Natural Gas Technology - National Energy … Library/Research/Oil-Gas...Oil & Natural Gas Technology DOE Award No.: DE-FE0000408 Quarterly Report October – December 2011 Post

Quarterly Report: October - December 2011 Ceramatec Inc, 17

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